Chef Aine McAteer has long touted the connection between what we eat and how we feel. She now reveals her number one "kitchen medicine"—ginger—and shares some natural remedies using this tasty root.

By Aine McAteer

When I was a young girl growing up in rural Ireland, one thing I knew for sure was that whatever ailed me, my granny had some sort of a concoction to cure it. This was often motivation for me not to get sick or to will myself well, as these "medicines" were not exactly culinary delights.

She had us eating boiled nettles to build our blood and drinking barley water to cure colds and coughs. Castor oil was administered for tummy upsets and constipation, and when there wasn't a twig or a leaf to cure something, holy water to the rescue! Our warts were rubbed with black snails, our sprained ankles wrapped in leaves from the palm tree and our infections drawn out with hot bread poultices.

In more recent years, I seem to have regressed to the ways of days gone by. Being told at age 19 that I would be dependent on medication for the rest of my life was motivation enough for me to seek out natural alternatives. In the days before Google, I had to search far and wide only to be directed back toward the wisdom of my grandmother.

I discovered that I could cook my way to better health, and this was a very enlightening discovery. I became a girl on a mission and continued to discover every day the magical connection between what I ate and my health and vitality. Now, if I feel unwell, I look no further than my kitchen cupboards to find a remedy.